Oodles of outdoorsy ideas for the last big camping weekend of 2021 in Idaho!

Big Lookout Lake, Trinity Mountains

Hi all,

Labor Day weekend is upon us! It's the typical last hurrah of the camping season, so I'm dishing up some last-minute tips for the three-day weekend, as always. 

Before we get into the camping ideas, Bogus Basin, Brundage Mountain and Tamarack Resort all have some fun stuff going on this weekend, and the Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic at Ann Morrison Park runs daily through Sunday.  

Courtesy Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic

This weekend will be the final segment of Music on the Mountain at Bogus Basin on Saturday, Sept. 4, from 3-6 p.m., featuring Voice of Reason and the Afrosonics on the lawn outside Simplot Lodge. Plus you can partake in Fun Zone activities, including summer tubing, bungee trampoline, gem panning, climbing wall, mountain coaster or ride the lifts to access hiking and biking trails. 

Bogus will be open on weekends through October FYI. 

 

This will be the final weekend of operations at Brundage Mountain. Jeff Crosby and the Refugees will play live in the grass amphitheather in the final TGIF concert of the year Friday night. The event is free. Food and beverage available for sale on site. Also, Brundage is providing FREE lift service to retail, restaurant, service, hospitality and health care employees Friday-Monday. That's pretty cool! 

 

At Tamarack, they're hosting a super fun Bikes, Brews & Bluegrass event on Sunday, Sept. 5, 1-5 p.m. Ride the lift and check out the hiking and biking trails on the mountain. They've got something for all abilities, including hard-core downhillers! In addition, there will be end-of-season sales with guest shop retailers, live bluegrass music by local Idaho musicians, and up to a dozen different beers all from local Idaho breweries! Guests must be 21+ to purchase cups and tokens for beer, but otherwise it's a family friendly FREE event!

 

Steve fishing Rainbow Lake

Now, on to the camping tips and other Labor Day ideas ... the weather looks stellar BTW for camping, hiking and biking this Labor Day weekend, with daytime highs in the 80s in the mountains, and 90s in the Boise Valley.

• Trinity Mountains - Go camping, day-hiking or backpacking in the Trinities. I recommend driving there via Featherville. Head for Big Trinity Lake, the trailhead and general dispersed camping area. It's definitely worth backpacking into the high mountain lakes to get away from the car-campers and enjoy some good fishing!
  
  
  
  

• Cascade area - Stolle Meadows and Landmark are my favorite camping areas in this neck of the woods. There are tons of primitive car-camping spots in both locations, east of Cascade, off the Warm Lake Highway. I've heard there may be some construction in the Stolle Meadows area so check with the Cascade Ranger District for any closures. Plus, there are hot springs in the vicinity.

• 

  Lick Creek area in the Payette National Forest 

• McCall area - Camping, hiking and backpacking in the Lick Creek area NE of McCall should be fabulous. Some of the nice mountain lakes up there include Box, Snowslide, Duck, Hum, Enos and Thirty-three lakes. Pick up a Payette National Forest map or a McCall Adventure Map to get the details for access. Also, check my blog from earlier this summer on five easy-to-access kid-friendly mountain lakes in the McCall area. 

  

  Stanley Lake 

• Stanley area - I'm sure the Stanley area will be hopping with lots of campers at Stanley Lake, Redfish Lake, Pettit Lake and points along the Salmon River. Backpacking in the White Clouds should be dandy, particularly from the East Fork side, being a three-day weekend and all. Don't forget the Marsh Creek Trail as another potential destination ... great hiking and fly fishing spot. Hike up to the junction of Bear Valley and Marsh Creeks, and there's a huge glory hole right there. 

  

  North and Middle Forks of the Boise River ... car-camping mecca 

• Idaho City area - The North and Middle Forks of the Boise River work great for car camping. See my post from last week.  
• Salmon River beaches - Upstream from Riggins along the Salmon River Road are some sweet spots for camping, hanging out and swimming. 

Courtesy Winding Rivers Rafting

Also, Labor Day weekend is chock full of big sales at your favorite outdoor retailers in the Boise area, places like Idaho Mountain Touring, George's Cycles, Boise REI, Greenwood's, McU Sports, Alpenglow Mountain Sport, Idaho River Sports, and Shu's Idaho Running Company, all have some fantastic clothing and gear on sale right now. Great deals! Go get 'em! 

Backpacking in Trinity Lakes provides quick access to six lakes basin close to home

Wendy is happy to be in the mountains 

Big Lookout Lake 

Relaxing on big granite rocks on the shore of Big Lookout Lake 

Heart Lake 

Big Rainbow Lake 

My new pack ... much lighter than the old Kelty! 

Wendy hikes toward the top of the pass 

Hi all,

After spending quite a bit of time on the river this summer, I had a strong itch to go backpacking last weekend. I wanted to go somewhere relatively close by, as both Wendy and I had work stuff going on through Friday afternoon, but we still wanted to get out of town Friday night. We decided to head for the Trinity Lakes, a sweet lakes basin under the shadow of towering Trinity Mountain Lookout (elevation 9,451 feet).

We figured that the Trinities would probably be relatively clear of smoke, being well south and west of the leading edge of the Pioneer Fire. And that turned out to be true!

It'd been 20 years since I've been up to the Trinities, quite honestly, and I forgot how long it takes to get there, even if you go through Prairie, the most direct route via 3 hours of dirt roads. Wendy and I took Black's Creek Road to Prairie on Friday evening, and enjoyed the scenic drive along the South Fork of the Boise River. It was about 8 p.m. as we pulled into Prairie, and I figured we'd better look for a campsite somewhere along the forest road because we had some lamb steaks to BBQ. We were still an hour from the Trinities, and it'd be dark by then. We spied a nice outhouse by the Prairie Airstrip and car-camped by a picnic bench on the end of the airfield.

Our campsite on the Prairie Airfield 

We drove east to the Fall Creek Road the next morning and scaled a steep dirt road to Big Trinity Lake, the trailhead. The dirt road becomes a steep and gnarly 4WD road for the last couple of miles. I was wishing I'd taken my Ford F-250 instead of my Honda Pilot as I slowed rolled over razor-sharp rocks in the final ascent into the Trinity Lakes area, holding my breath all the way. Even so, it's rare to be able to drive to a trailhead at 8,200 feet, which of course, puts you in prime position to access the lakes basin without that much climbing.

There are a number of super-cool car-camping spots around Big Trinity Lake for future reference. The trailhead to the Trinity Lakes is on the east side of the lake, even though the topo map shows it on the west side. Not true!

Our plan was to scale the pass on the well-worn singletrack trail and decide which lakes to visit after we got a closer view. It's about 1 mile from the trailhead to the top of the pass, gaining about 500 feet. From that perch, Green Island Lake looked swampy and poor for fishing. We decided to head into Big Lookout Lake and make a base camp there. It's about 2.5 miles total to Big Lookout from the trailhead. The lake was crystal clear, and nice and deep for fishing and swimming. There were several campsites around the edge of the lake, and that's a good thing because most of them were full.

Topo map for Trinity Lakes area (click to enlarge)
Take a Boise National Forest map with you
for road navigation.

Wendy liked the quick access. "The Trinities are my new favorite place for a short hike into a whole basin of lakes, there's nothing quite like it," she said.

We've taken our kids to Josephine Lake and Snowslide Lake in McCall, and they're short hikes, but they don't take you into a whole basin of lakes like the Trinities. There are eight high mountain lakes named on the map, but truthfully, several of them are ponds, like Little Lookout Lake.

I brought my fly rod and spin cast set up to fish for trout, and that was fun. I caught a nice cutthroat in Big Lookout Lake, and some smaller fish, but the fish seemed finicky. I could see that a float tube would be "the kind" to really slay the fish up there to access the deep spots in the middle of the large lakes.

Wendy and I toured Heart Lake and Big Rainbow Lake Sunday morning before we hiked out to the trailhead. Those lakes were only a mile or so from Big Lookout, but they were both very big and beautiful. I could see base camping at either one of them.

I must mention how cool it was to see two dad-and-daughter pairs camping at Big Lookout Lake. One of the dads hauled his 2 1/2-year-old daughter up to that lake, carrying a backpack with his sleeping bag and hers, a tent, their food and clothes, etc. He told us that he had to carry his daughter most of the way to the lake ... all while carrying a 45-pound pack. That's devotion! It's nice to see young people out backpacking and camping in spite of what we hear -- that our children don't want to venture into the outdoors anymore.

On our drive home, we took Forest Road #172 to Featherville (much smoother road) and took mostly paved roads back to Boise. It's still about 3 hours going that direction, but much easier on your vehicle. Plus, you can stop at the restaurant in Pine and get a milk shake!

As we move into September, I would expect that the number of people flocking to the Trinities will dissipate. And there's plenty of nice weather left for backpacking!
- SS

Ride Sun Valley Bike Festival coming up, plus some ideas on how to escape 100-degree blast furnace

Ride Sun Valley! 

Cool off at Lake Cascade State Park! 

Trinity Lakes 

Harriman State Park ... Mesa Falls is nearby! 

Loon Lake would be refreshing this time of year ... 

Hi all,

Well, the 4th of July is coming up next week, and extreme heat is descending on the Boise Valley after a nice respite of cool weather. Five days of 100-plus heat are forecast in the Boise area, beginning Friday. Geez! This week, I'll share some thoughts about where you could go to beat the heat, but first, I'll tout some events coming up.

The Ride Sun Valley Bike Fest kicks off on Friday with an enduro event and opening party at Sawtooth Brewery on Friday night, and then there is a full slate of events going on through next week that promise to please cyclists of all kinds.

The Ketchum-Sun Valley area will be a nice place to cool off as well. One event that looks fun is the SRAM Gold Rusch Tour, a series of mountain bike rides for women led by Sun Valley's own Rebecca Rusch, known as "the queen of pain." She's a three-time world-champion in mountain bike endurance events and four-time winner of the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. Reba's Ride Camp runs from July 2-7. There is no charge. Seems like an awesome opportunity.

On July 1-2, demo bikes are available from Cannondale, GT, Mongoose, Ellsworth and Scott, among others. The bikes are available at no charge to ride on Sun Valley's 400+ miles of singletrack from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Another great opportunity.

On Wednesday, July 3rd, there's a criterium race in Ketchum starting at 3 p.m. in the afternoon. That would be fun to watch! And from Monday, July 1 through Friday, July 5th, there are a bunch of "local stoker" rides on the creme de la creme of Sun Valley's singletrack trails. For folks who want to ride the best singletrack that Ketchum-Sun Valley has to offer, here's a chance to explore those rides with local ride leaders.

Next Saturday, July 6th, the USA Cycling Marathon Mountain Bike National Championships will be held at Bald Mountain ... good chance to watch the strongest riders in the nation compete on the 45-mile course featuring over 5,000 feet of climbing and descending. Plus, there's the MASSV Music Fest on July 5 and 6 at the base of Bald Mountain.

I've got to tip my hat to the folks in the Ketchum-Sun Valley area for packing an incredible amount of fun, food and music into a week's worth of quality activities. If you're looking for lodging, check out the Visit Sun Valley web site for the best deals that fit your budget. You also could camp in the Sawooth National Recreation Area nearby.

Cool off in the Payette River and learn about river safety ... On Saturday, June 29, the Idaho Whitewater Association is hosting a safety clinic on the Main Payette River from Banks to Beehive Bend. Put-on the Main Payette between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Participate in clinics on boat-flipping (and flipping back over), first-aid and throw bag safety.

Here are a few recommendations for cool-off trips during the 4th of July week:

• Head up to Bogus Basin, where it's always 10-15 degrees cooler than it is in the valley, and go hiking or biking on tons of trails at the ski area or nearby in the Eastside, Stack Rock area. 
• Go camping in the Trinity Mountains near Prairie in the Boise National Forest. It's a high-elevation area with a number of high mountain lakes near the end of the road. 
• Head for Lake Cascade State Park in Cascade. Ponderosa State Park is likely booked for the whole holiday week, but Lake Cascade State Park will have some openings. The north unit of the park along Lake Cascade west of Donnelly has a number of nice campgrounds right on the shores of Lake Cascade. You can go canoeing or lake kayaking on the lake, bike the Crown Point Trail (great for kids and families), go tubing or kayaking at Kelly's Whitewater Park, or hike/ride the Eagle's Nest Trail (click on free download). 
• Go camping, hiking and biking in the Payette National Forest, north of McCall. Areas like Upper Payette Lake, Squaw Meadows, Burgdorf Hot Springs, Loon Lake and others will be much cooler than the Treasure Valley. Be sure to bring your bug juice as the mosquitoes will be out in force in the evening.  
• Go camping in Eastern Idaho, visit Harriman State Park and Mesa Falls or go fishing on the Henrys Fork or the South Fork of the Snake River. 
• Rent a cabin in the Boise or Payette national forest and dip your toes into a nearby creek. Go to recreation.gov to check on availability. The cabins are inexpensive and make a great base camp, especially with kids. 
• Go kayaking, rafting or canoeing on the Payette River. 
• Float the Boise River. 
• Go backpacking to a high mountain lake in the Sawtooths, White Clouds, Boise National Forest, Payette National Forest, Sawtooth NRA or Frank Church-River of Return Wilderness. Go swimming in the high mountain lake ... it'll be refreshing, I guarantee it. 
• Escape to the Oregon Coast. 
• Head up to Priest Lake or Lake Pend Oreille in North Idaho. 
• Go Ice Skating at Idaho Ice World. Ha! That'll keep you cool. 

There you have it!
- SS